Protecting Digital Data Such as Images on a Device with Image Acquisition Capabilities

1. An apparatus, comprising: an image acquisition element configured for acquiring digital images; a processing element for interpreting one or more digital images of said acquired digital images to produce a master key; storage configured for storing data, including said digital images; and an encryption mechanism configured for generating, using a cryptographic function, a one-way, progressive series of keys derived from a the master key, and configured for encrypting or authenticating said digital images; wherein each particular key of the progressive series of keys is associated with a different session of a plurality of sessions, with said particular key being the basis for encrypting or authenticating images in said session associated with the particular key to produce encrypted or authenticated images.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , comprising an interface configured for exporting a representation of the master key which subsequently can be said acquired and said interpreted to produce the master key for use in decrypting or authenticating, by said encryption mechanism, said encrypted or authenticated digital images.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , comprising: an image display; and display element configured for displaying images; wherein images of said encrypted or authenticated images are decrypted or authenticated based on said master key produced by interpreting one or more acquired images of the exported representation of the master key.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein said exported representation of the master key is an image; and wherein said acquired image is said interpreted to produce the master key is a captured image of the printed or displayed image of the exported representation of the master key.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the master key is immediately deleted from the apparatus after producing a first key in the progressive series of keys.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , comprising: an image display; and display element configured for displaying images; wherein only images in the current session corresponding to the current key of the progressive series of keys can be decrypted or authenticated for display.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is configured: to initially generate the master key; to export a representation of the master key; and to import and interpret the representation of the master key to produce the master key for use in decrypting or authenticating, by said encryption mechanism, said encrypted or authenticated digital images.

8. A method performed by a device including an image acquisition component, the method comprising: obtaining a master key; generating, using a cryptographic function, a one-way, progressive series of keys derived from the master key, wherein each particular key of the progressive series of keys is associated with a different session of a plurality of sessions; exporting the master key out of the device; encrypting images based on the series of progressive keys derived from the master key; and storing said encrypted images in the device; acquiring a digital image representing the master key; interpreting the digital image to recover the master key; and decrypting one or more of said stored encrypted images based on said keys cryptographically derived from said recovered master key.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein said exported master key is one or more images representing the master key; wherein the image representing the master key can be acquired and interpreted by the device or another device in order to decrypt said encrypted images.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein said one or more images representing the master key is in the form of a bar code.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein said acquiring the digital image representing the master key includes taking a picture of a displayed or printed said image representing the master key.

12. A method performed by an image acquisition device, the method, comprising: acquiring a master key, including interpreting one or more digital images to produce the master key; generating a session key based on the master key using a cryptographic function of one or more cryptographic functions; and for each particular session of a plurality of sessions, performing each of operations (a)-(b): (a) for one or more times during the particular session: capturing a particular image; encrypting the particular image based on the session key; and storing said encrypted particular image; and (b) at the end of the particular session, replacing the session key with a new session key using a cryptographic function of one or more cryptographic functions.

13. The method of claim 12 , comprising: generating a master key identifier to produce a different value for use in identifying whether or not an image of said stored images was encrypted based on the master key; and wherein operation (a) includes storing the different value with the particular image.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein said operation (a) includes: generating a session key identifier to produce a particular value for use in identifying whether or not an image of said stored images was encrypted based on the session key; and storing the particular value with the particular image.

15. The method of claim 14 , comprising: exporting the master key out of the image acquisition device; acquiring a digital image of a representation of said exported master key; interpreting the digital image to produce the master key; generating one or more sessions keys based on said produced master key; and decrypting and displaying one or more of said stored encrypted includes decrypting and displaying said stored encrypted particular image based on said one or more session keys generated based on said produced master key.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein said operation (a) includes decrypting and displaying said stored encrypted particular image based on the session key.

17. The method of claim 12 , comprising: exporting the master key out of the image acquisition device; acquiring a digital image of a representation of said exported master key; interpreting the digital image to produce the master key; generating one or more sessions keys based on said produced master key; and decrypting and displaying one or more of said stored encrypted particular images based on said one or more session keys generated based on said produced master key.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein said exporting the master key out of the image acquisition device includes generating a bar code representation of the master key; and wherein said acquiring the digital image includes taking a picture of a printout or display of the bar code representation of the master key.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein for at least one of said particular sessions of the plurality of sessions: said one or more times includes at least two times.

20. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of sessions includes a plurality of said digital images.

21. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is a digital camera.

22. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the apparatus is a digital camera.